I was intrigued by deckbuilding card battler The Killing Stone when it was revealed during last year’s Gamescom, but I didn’t expect to be playing the latest game from former Bioshock bods Question quite so soon. But a new trailer reveals that The Killing Stone will be ready for business next month, and I’m beginning to think it might be one of the early bangers of 2026.
The Killing Stone is a card battler with demonic overtones that owes at least some of its soul to 2021’s Inscryption. The meat of the experience is a simulated board-game where you play cards that come to life as little critters. These critters form up in a line on the board, fighting to destroy a lidless eye that represents each player’s life. Destroy your opponent’s eye and you can move on to the next battle. If your eye gets poked to oblivion on the other hand, well, let’s just say the results aren’t to your advantage.
I took the demo for a wee spin earlier, and was pretty much immediately gripped. There’s a pleasing tactility in placing creatures and watching them slash each other to a pulp, and it reveals its tactical potential pretty quickly too. My favourite feature, though, is how it lets you choose between contemporary English and an early modern dialect for both voice acting and text.
The latter option is, frankly, rad as hell. I would strongly recommend that you play with all the demons speaking in ornate, cod-Shakespearian rhetoric, as it fits the tone of the game so well. But I also respect Question giving players an option that’s easier to parse, as not everyone’s into characters prancing around saying words like “thou’st”.
Anyway, I’m sold and I’m in and I want to play more. The Killing Stone releases on February 18, so you’ll have time to play it before Resident Evil: Requiem lands about a week later.
